Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Guided By Voices
Considering how much music I’ve listened to and reviewed by these guys, it’s surprising to recognize how little I know about them. Although I’ve listened to (the equivalent of) perhaps a dozen albums worth of music, I still cannot say I understand Guided By Voices, and I like that. They are a band that keeps me guessing, that forces me to listen with my wits as much as my ears, and I like that, too. With lyrics that are as opaque as a kaleidoscope, there just isn’t much that is tangible enough to provide a foothold.
The most obvious trait of GBV is their tendency to take a song just past the point of creativity, and then record it, unadorned. For music fans who listen creatively, this is great fun, because it forces the listener to hear the song from an angle that is obliquely opposed to most pop music. It isn’t ear candy, and without the production values that are now considered ‘normal’ or essential for the pop marketplace, we either hear the song through the gauze of ‘low-fi’ or we ignore it entirely. I hate to admit this, but the average Joe on the street likes his music to be provided for him; let radio rotate a few prefabricated variations on familiar themes, and Joe Public is fine with it. He would hate Guided By Voices, and the reasons are simple. The primary reason is that this band avoids the polish and sheen of production values the way that cats avoid swimming pools. I might not know much about the band themselves, but their work methods seem to be fairly obvious. After a song is written, the recording commences soon afterward. Once the song is set down, it is left in that state as if it were preserved in aspic. It’s a strange methodology because it relies on the infinite possibilities of initial creation, but forces the process to end at that point.
On Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, Guided By Voices allow themselves a bit more leeway with production (just a bit), and the album benefits greatly from it. After all, why can’t production (or post-production, for that matter) be used as a creative tool? The five tracks that kick off the album make this point abundantly clear, with an attention to detail that is nowhere near anal, but at least shows some consideration for the intelligent songs they decorate. "Rhine Jive Click", "Burning Flag Birthday Suit" and "The Official Ironman Rally Song" sound exactly like Guided By Voices, but they also sound good enough for commercial airplay. One song, "Don’t Stop Now" is a re-recording of an earlier song, and true to what I had said earlier, its arrangement remains absolutely true to the low-fi version it updates, except with a production that suits it better and makes it more appealing. These guys still might not get airplay, but after this album, I can no longer say that it is simply because the band chooses it to be that way. Who knows? If radio stations started playing "Lord of Overstock", maybe Joe Public would hum along.
Grade: 
 
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